Ashley Jackson is
forging a reputation as a leading historian of the British Empire
and World War II. After eight years at Mansfield College, Oxford
he moved to King's College London in 2004, where he is now Professor
of Imperial and Military History. His third book, The British
Empire and the Second World War, appeared to critical acclaim
in 2006. He is currently writing Ocean Victory: Britain's
Eastern War, 1939–1945
and a biography of Winston Churchill. His latest book, Mad
Dogs and Englishmen: A Grand Tour of the British Empire at its
Height, is published by Quercus.

Distant Drums reveals how colonies were central to the defence
of the British Empire and the command of the oceans that underpinned
it. It blends sweeping overviews of the nature of imperial defence
with grass-roots explanations of how individual colonies were mobilized
for war, drawing on the author's specialist knowledge of the Indian
Ocean and colonies such as Bechuanaland, Ceylon, Mauritius, and
Swaziland. This permits the full and dramatic range of action involved
in imperial warfare – from policy-makers and military planners
in Whitehall to chiefs recruiting soldiers in African villages –
to be viewed as part of an interconnected whole.

After examining the martial reasons for acquiring colonies,
Distant Drums considers the colonial role in the First
World War. It then turns to the Second World War, documenting the
recruitment of colonial soldiers, their manifold roles in British
military formations, and the impact of war upon colonial home fronts.
It reveals the problems associated with the use of colonial troops
far from home, and the networks used to achieve the mobilization
of a global empire, such as those formed by colonial governors and
regional naval commanders.

Distant Drums is an important contribution to our
understanding of the role of British colonies in twentieth-century
warfare. The defence of empire has traditionally been associated
with the military endeavours of Britain and the 'white' Dominions,
with the Indian Army sometimes in the background. This book champions
the crucial role played by the other parts of the British
Empire – the sixty or so colonies spread across the globe
– in delivering victory during the world wars of the twentieth
century.

Hardback ISBN:

978-1-84519-349-2

Hardback Price:

£49.95 / $74.95

Release Date:

February 2010

Paperback ISBN:

978-1-84519-438-3

Paperback Price:

£25.00 / $34.95

Release Date:

November 2010

Page Extent / Format:

368 pp. / 229 x 152 mm

Illustrated:

Yes

Preface

1. The British colonial empire
and imperial warfare

2. The role of colonies in
imperial defence

3. The evolution of a martial
colony: Ceylon, 1760 to 1960

4. The First World War in the
Indian Ocean region

5. The First World War in a
colonial backwater: The Bechuanaland Protectorate and the
Caprivi Strip

6. Recruiting colonial soldiers:
Mauritius and the High Commission Territories

7. The military contribution
of High Commission Territories soldiers during the Second
World War

8. Unrest among African soldiers
in the British Army during the Second World War

9. The 1st Battalion The Mauritius
Regiment, Madagascar, 1943: The archaeology of a colonial
mutiny

10. Ceylon, Mauritius, and
the Indian Ocean during the Second World War

11. ‘A prodigy of skill
and organization’: British imperial networks and the
Second World War

12. Colonial governors and
the Second World War

Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Distant Drums is Ashley Jackson’s latest
attempt to integrate twentieth century conflict into the history
of the British Empire . . . Jackson argues that the colonial
empire was at the very heart of imperial defence during two
world wars and through its engagement . . . we are left with
a richer and more vital understanding of military history, of
the relationship of the periphery to the metropole bound by
imperial command, and of a variety of national histories of
former colonies . . . In Distant Drums, Jackson presents
an excellent preface, a clearly articulated thesis, and some
wonderful chapters of important research.Journal
of Military History, reviewed by Professor Stephen Millerp

The crucial
role that India and the ‘white’ Dominions –
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada – played
in Britain’s system of imperial defence is well known.
Jackson’s aim is to underline the vital contribution
of those 50 or so other imperial territories ruled through
the Colonial Office. ‘Colonies were woven into the tapestry
of British warfare and Britain’s presence on the world
state as the foremost power,’ writes Jackson. ‘Yet
the military history of the colonial empire has been
overlooked’. Why was this so? Partly, explains Jackson,
because the Dominions and India provided the empire with its
‘main non-British defence assets that could be utilised
for imperial purposes’. The colonies, on the other hand,
had no warships or air forces, and their armies were relatively
small during peacetime and intended ‘primarily for internal
policing’. And when they did make significant military
contributions – in both world wars, for example –
it was often by the less glamorous provision of essential
military labour to support fighting fronts, rather than front-line
soldiers.
... Yet, according to Jackson, colonies have always been central
to imperial defence. Many were acquired precisely because of this
utility, and ‘small’ wars on the colonial frontier were
the ‘meat and drink of the British military for much of the
19th and 20th centuries. The ‘base infrastructure’ of
colonies – from fortresses to aerodromes – was essential
to the functioning of the British military system, as was their
provision of human resources. During the Second World War, the colonies
supplied more troops to the imperial cause than all of the ‘white’
Dominions combined, including the 100,000-strong logistical support
force that enabled Montgomery’s victorious 8th Army to sweep
all before it in north Africa. After Indian independence in 1947,
colonies became even more important to Britain’s imperial
defence planning, though large garrison forces were gradually replaced
by carrier battle groups, strategic air lift and jet fighters.
... Nor has the empire entirely disappeared. Today Britain has
overseas territories in the Caribbean, Antarctica, Mediterranean,
the South Atlantic, the Indian and Pacific oceans, and one of its
core defence missions is still protection of these possessions and
the retention of overseas military bases. ‘The fact,’
writes Jackson, “of Britain’s continuing commitment
to a global military presence, irrespective of the Cold War and
the downsizing of the armed forces, should come as no surprise”.
This important and long-overdue book confirms Jackson’s growing
reputation as a leading historian of British imperial warfare.
Saul David, professor of war studies, University of Buckingham,
writing in BBC History Magazine

Jackson examines the role of imperial colonies in the history
of British imperial warfare, arguing that there has been undue focus
on the military deliberations and capabilities of Britain, the Dominions,
and India to the neglect of the rest of the colonies. He first discusses
the major contours of imperial warfare and the place of the colonies
within it and then focuses on the history of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka)
as military base, strategic asset, and contributor of resources
to Britain’s wars. He then examines World War I in terms of
the significance of the Indian Ocean, the ‘east of Suez’
region (those areas of the world to which the British military had
sea lanes of communication through the Suez Canal), and the Bechuanaland
Protectorate (now Botswana). The focus then shifts to World War
II and the mobilization of colonial manpower in Southern Africa
and their tasks in the war, levels of imperial authority and the
management of colonial personnel assets, the importance of the Indian
Ocean, the role of the Indian Ocean colonies of Ceylon and Mauritius,
and networks of imperial authority and the role of colonial governors
in the War.Reference & Research Book News

Jackson argues that historians’
attention to the dominions and India has overshadowed the
contribution of British colonies to imperial warfare. Given
the empire’s demographics, this is unsurprising; yet,
as Jackson demonstrates, the colonial world was a significant
chain of imperial defense itself, providing troops, fortifications,
supply lines, and resources. Jackson supports his argument
through a series of case studies covering the two world wars,
taking readers from southern Africa across the Indian Ocean.
This is in some ways an odd book. It is not quite an abridgement
of the colonial sections of Jackson’s more expansive
The British Empire and the Second World War (2006), as it
includes two chapters on WW I and one each on imperial networks
and colonial governors in WW II. The book stands as a volume
of collected essays (which in part it is – 8 of the
13 chapters are revised versions of Jackson’s previously
published work) rather than a cohesive monograph. This is
no bad thing; indeed, the book’s episodic nature, supplemented
by a fine glossary and bibliography, suggests its best use
is as a reference work on what Jackson has persuasively argued
is a yet understudied aspect of Britain’s imperial martial
history. Recommended.Choice

Reading this collection of
previously published chapters and articles augmented by revised
or newly written material, it is not difficult to see why
he is held in such growing acclaim or why this latest study
has received such universally noteworthy reviews. The book’s
focus is on imperial defense and the argument that the British
colonial empire was central to a system of collective security
that permeated strategic planning emanating from Whitehall
throughout the twentieth century. In order to examine this
thesis, the author explores how “imperial networks were employed
to connect imperial resources to Britain’s strategic needs”
(x), and, in the process, he seeks to correct a significant
omission from much of the established literature in which
the former “white” Dominions and India receive the lion’s
share of the attention . . . A particularly vivid and fascinating
chapter about Ceylon, a “martial colony” whose close connection
with Britain spans over two hundred years, confirms not only
the author’s eye for detail but the often delightful prose
he employs when constructing his narrative. Another stand-alone,
and indeed in this instance standout, chapter succinctly describes
how the wider network operated during what would prove to
be its greatest challenge, the Second World War . . . It is
difficult to fault the production of this volume. It benefits
from the inclusion of some lovely illustrations drawn from,
among other locations, the Sri Lanka National Archives in
Colombo. A vast, wide-ranging bibliography merely confirms
the many years that have been spent in researching this subject.
A real strength, previously alluded to, is the manner in which
this study has been written. The task of threading together
his previously published material with the newly revised additions
is accomplished with great skill to produce a highly informative
and well-written monograph that flows extremely well and draws
the reader along to great effect. It will appeal to a great
many readers, whether they are students of the British Empire
or military historians.Andrew
Stewart in the Journal of British Studies, 50, 3
(2011)

“The
distant drums are not those vaguely heard from Britain; they
are those heard from the perspective of African, Indian Ocean
and Asian peoples. Jackson’s contention is that military historians
have too often considered the great European wars of the 20th
century in essentially Eurocentric ways. The role of empire
and of colonial peoples has too often been played down and
should be reconsidered. After two chapters considering the
wider aspects of the significance of imperial defence as a
whole, the author examines the emergence of Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
as a martial colony between the 18th and 20th centuries, then
the role of the colonies in the First World War, followed
by the main body of the book, seven chapters on the contribution
of the colonies to the Second World War. In one chapter, there
is a consideration of the ways in which war played out in
the Indian Ocean in much more significant ways than historians
have previously acknowledged. Jackson’s major new approach
has been to conduct original research in Botswana, Sri Lanka
and Mauritius, as well as considering at some length recruitment
in the southern African High Commission territories generally
(that is, Swaziland, Basutoland and Bechuanaland). In many
respects the book offers an antidote to the fierce moral critiques
of empire of some recent historiography. For Jackson, these
wars constituted genuinely progressivist campaigns against
autocratic and evil states, wars in which the participation
and sacrifices of colonial troops should be recognised and
even celebrated. None the less, as Jackson himself acknowledges,
these troops were often subject to racist attitudes and demeaning
utilisation of their martial abilities. For example, they
were often used in highly menial tasks, and that together
with reactions to racist treatment could at times lead to
‘mutinies’. This book certainly acts as a fascinating revision
in all sorts of ways, though – as Jackson would acknowledge
– much remains to be written about the sweeping up of empire
into the fiercely destructive wars of the 20th century, as
well as the continuing operations of the colonial dimension
in modern warfare.”The Round Table, The Commonwealth Journal of International
Affairs

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